Firefighters and public safety officers in Washtenaw County got a searing experience with electric vehicle safety last autumn while battling a tragic automotive fire.

Firefighters who responded to a Sept. 18, 2024, fire near Plymouth dumped 3,000 gallons of water on a white 2020 Model 3 Tesla after it was struck by another vehicle. They also applied a fire blanket, which the fire consumed within 30 minutes.

The crash happened when a 2024 silver Nissan Rogue driving the wrong way on eastbound M-14 turned into the entrance ramp from Gotfredson Road, according to documents Michigan Capitol Confidential obtained through a records request from local and state agencies. The Rogue was going about 69 miles per hour when it struck the Tesla, killing both drivers and a passenger in the Nissan vehicle.

A bystander called 911 within two minutes of the crash, and an off-duty officer was one of the first people on the scene. One of the victim’s family members was notified immediately through a crash notification program on the Tesla, according to an emergency report.

About 16 minutes after the crash, the Tesla caught fire.

Firefighters spent more than four hours trying to put out the fire and cut out a body from the Tesla. One firefighter was hurt while removing the body, according to an official report.

“Shortly thereafter the battery pack caught fire and the vehicle began to burn rapidly,” said a Michigan State Police report. “The Model 3 had extensive fire damage and was burnt down to the frame.”

Responding to an electric vehicle fire is a relatively new challenge for first responders.

Gasoline-fueled vehicles can catch fire, but those fires end relatively quickly as the gas burns up or evaporates, said Jason Hayes, director of energy and environmental policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. But an EV can reignite and burn for hours.

Fires involving internal combustion engines “tend to burn very hot and go out relatively fast,” Hayes wrote in an email to CapCon. “EV fires burn hot and are next to impossible to put out because the chemical reactions in the battery create a mix of oxygen and toxic fumes that can keep the fire burning, even when water is present. We wrote about one wrecking yard digging a pit and (literally) submerging an EV that caught fire in their yard to put it out.”

When lithium-ion battery cells catch fire, are punctured, or reach an extreme temperature, the fire can repeatedly reignite in a phenomenon called thermal runaway. This causes the fire to burn hotter, faster, and even reignite after initially being extinguished, according to Underwriters Laboratories.

About 50,000 electric vehicles are registered in Michigan, according to the federal government. Although they account for a small percentage of Michigan’s vehicles, they present unique fire risks. An EV fire burns at roughly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, while a gasoline-powered vehicle on fire burns at 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the University of Clemson’s College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences.

Current EV technology isn’t ready for mass adoption, Hayes said.

“The examples in the documents CapCon received prove that EVs are not what we have been promised,” Hayes wrote.

Michigan policy mandates that there must be two million electric vehicles on state roads by 2030, but these vehicles are fraught with high costs and concerns about their environmental impacts, reliability and safety, Hayes said.

The state of Michigan has 30 EVs in its own vehicle fleet, CapCon has reported. The total fleet has about 14,482 vehicles.

Hens could lay in Michigan’s residential backyards under a bipartisan bill introduced in the state House in January.

House Bill 4049, introduced by Rep. James DeSana, R-Carlton, would allow up to five chickens per quarter-acre of property, with a limit of 25 chickens in residential areas. Rep. Jason Morgan, D-Ann Arbor, is a co-sponsor.

“Eggs are too damn expensive right now, and this legislation could make a real difference,” Morgan said in an email to Michigan Capitol Confidential.

The bill would allow people living under residential zoning restrictions to keep egg-laying hens on their property. If enacted into law, the bill would override local ordinances that ban hens in residential areas.

Any number of hens higher than the limit specified in the bill would be subject to local zoning laws. The bill would not ban local governments from enforcing nuisance laws on noise, hours of operation, or advertising. The bill allows cities to ban roosters, if they choose, because of possible noise complaints.

Response to bird flu has led to the slaughter of 6.5 million chickens in the last year, bill sponsor DeSana said in a press release, contributing to a spike in retail egg prices.

A 2019 law that took effect Dec. 31, 2024, is another factor influencing the price of eggs in the state. It requires all eggs sold in Michigan to come from cage-free hens.

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is reviewing the legislation and doesn’t have a stance, according to Jennifer Holton, chief emergency management communications officer.

The city of Midland bans chickens and livestock within city limits. However, the much larger cities of Detroit and Ann Arbor allow chickens. 

Emily Dudley, a Midland resident, supports the bill and would like it to apply to people who own less than a quarter acre of land.

Dudley is preparing to lobby the Midland City Council to allow chickens, she told CapCon in an interview. She added that it is important for children to learn to raise animals and become more self-sufficient.

Dudley pointed to gray areas in the city‘s safety standards, which treat soil as safe to touch but presume that it is unsafe to eat animals raised on that soil.

Gardens and fruit trees are not prohibited, Dudley noted, and they grow in the soil.

Midland City Council members did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Midland, the home of Dow Chemical Company, bans chickens out of concern over potential dioxin contamination, according to a two-page fact sheet from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.

“Chickens can consume dioxins when they peck at the soil and eat insects from the ground,” according to the state document on poultry and livestock production. The fact sheet notes that Midland's ban does not apply along the lower Tittabawassee River or the downstream section of the Saginaw River.